6.8 SPC Forums banner

Boar vs. sow on meat

24K views 10 replies 11 participants last post by  joshuades 
#1 ·
Two local friends have told me to not bother with sow meat for processing as they tend to be much stronger in flavor than boars. My question to the group what do you do with sow meat once killed?
Thanks for the input.
 
#3 ·
Eat either. There are ways to get gamey meat to taste good. But it is a hassle with the big pigs.
Basically dig a big hole cover the pig with ice and leave letting the nasty drain away . Takes a big hole and a lot of ice.
 
#4 ·
People will tell you that it all can be eaten but if I can smell a boar I don't touch it. I have had them that made me gag and I could not even get the smell off of my hands. Personally I prefer smaller sows. Meat is excellent and small enough to handle by myself and put some in the freezer. If you guys have ate those nasty, nasty smelling old boars I will buy you a beer cause you are either really hungry or got some BIG balls!
 
#5 ·
You sure your friends have actually eaten wild hog?

My experience has been the sow meat never get gamey, just tougher to chew as they get larger.
Boars have been no problem if under 100-ish lbs, and the larger ones are typically just too rank, although there have been exceptions. When a beautiful loin cut, carefully removed with clean hands, smells bad....I choose not to go through the various processes to maybe make it palatable. It becomes coyote/buzzard food. And I should have known better when they stink so bad while loading them up.
A buddy of mine says the vast majority of their bigger boars are "just fine" to eat...maybe his olfactory system is out of whack!
 
#6 ·
I think this is true with life and pig meat. "If it dont stink than eat it! " :a01: Fat ones skinny ones if they all smell ok than process them and eat em up. The last sow I shot was almost 400lbs. I have made roast, steaks and sausage from her and they so far are all great tasting. I moved out to the country and with all the rumors about chiggers, boars, sows and coyotes I almost drove my wife crazy and me insane because I was thinking we were going to die in the first year. After some quick research I have come to realize that most of these concrens were dumb founded and I really had nothing to worry about.

If it dont stink then eat it.
 
#7 ·
if I am going to eat it I do everything different

If I know I am going to shoot a hog for the table I go out with a 1 lbs salt and 4 bags of ice. Or at least the salt.

I never shoot anything for the table over 150lbs. Boar or sow don't matter at that weight. Anything heavier is just a royal pain to skin and quarter.

Skin it gut it quarter it and throw it in the ice chest cover heavy with salt (every peice of meat all sides) and run to the quick stop for ice. layer ice ice on bottom and around all meat. Put just enough cheap drinking water in the chest to let all the meat be completely covered in ice water. The salt will allow the water to drop in temp to well below 32, how far it drops below freezing will bepend on how cold the ice was stored. This super chilled salty water will quick chill the meat all teh way to the bone and the salt will drag out blood. drain the water the next day and add water and ice as required.

The meat will far less gamey than if you hung it all night and took it to the processor the next morning after you went deer hunting. It will have a color more like domestic pork than wild. Heck if you just went out behind thehouse and shot your pet pig he would taste pretty much the same as what you kill in the field. The trick to good tasting hog is getting the blood out. They bleed dometic hogs to death to rid the meat of blood.

If you want the best wild hog. Trap it. hang it by its hind legs and make a single cut through the neck. You want to get the jugular vien, not sever the head or an artery. The intent is to bleed the hog to death slowly. You want blood going to the brain so the heart keeps pumping until its all gone. and since the head is low thats where it will all go. Most people can't tell a hog killed in this manner from a domestic.

Every once in a while you get a heart shot or artery bleed out on a field killed hog. They will be almost as good.

Then there are the little football size goobers. Shoot them in the head or neck. Skin and gut and throw right on the smoker. I cook them over hot smoke for about 6 hours or until you can twist out a ham bone.

Mesquite smoke seems to really push the gamey flavor out of the meat. Unfortunately by the time you cook deer that long its all dried out. :)
 
#8 ·
I put a boar in the ice chest with ice and milk. Each day for 4 days I drained it and poured more milk in. I roasted the whole thing and it was awesome! No gamey taste.
 
#10 ·
that one I killed I just cooked like you normaly would and it tasted fine to me... couldnt tell the difference between that one and the ones we raise every year.
 
#11 ·
Also, you should take as much of the fat/membrane (the white and rainbowish colored stuff) layer out of the meat before you cook (same with deer. If you fish, trim as much of the membrane and red meat from the fillets as posible, same reason). Most of the taste that folks describe as gamey come from those two places. I then let the meat sit in a mixing bowl with ice over and let the faucet trickle water on it so the top spills out the bowl, this seems to take some of the oils out of the meat. Always preferred sow over boar more for them being smaller in general and not as tough in the meat foe a given size, but I'd have to find something odd to turn away boar meat.
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top